Promise?
by Fey O'Reilly
Summary: Seven years have passed since Chihiro has left the Spirit Realm and all of it's inhabitants behind. She still hasnt seen or heard from Haku, and knows he lied to her. What happens when she goes to confront him about the lie?


**Promise?**

**By: Irony**

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"Hello?! Earth to Chihiro!" A red-haired girl sat up out of her seat at the lunch table, now waving her hands in front of the girl that she had previously called Chihiro. With still no answer from the girl she smiled and pushed her shoulder, causing Chihiro to tip sideways off of the chair she was sitting on, and land on the floor.

That's finally when she snapped out of her lunch-time daydream. She looked around and noticed she was on the floor and quickly stood up, straightening out her dress and sitting back down. "Sorry about that…." She looked back over to the red-head and smiled. "And thanks Paige."

The red-head, who Chihiro had addressed as Paige, nodded and smiled. "No problem Chi, that's the reason I'm here! To push you off of the lunch table chairs." She laughed a little, earning a laugh from a dark haired girl sitting next to her and Chihiro.

"You still coming over my house tomorrow?" The dark haired girl asked, looking over at Chihiro and then to Paige smiling.

"You know what?" Paige started. "Id think I'd rather stay home tomorrow. Yeah, stay home and play with my little brother." She rolled her eyes as she saw the girl who had asked her, Ami, sigh. "Of course I'm coming over Ami! Do you think I really want to spend my Saturday having to watch Michel?!" She said and laughed a little. "Id much rather come over your house any day!"

Ami smiled and then looked over to Chihiro, who was rubbing her eyes, still probably trying to get rid of the memories of the previous daydream. "How about you Chi?"

"Oh, yeah! Of course I'm coming over your house! I just got to run an errand that my mom needs done, and the store isn't opened today, so tomorrow after school i'm going to have to go." She replied to her friend.

"Great! Bring your pajama's and stuff and you guys can stay the night!" Ami said as she stood up out of her and smiled at her friends. "Well, I got to go to gym. Lucky me." She rolled her eyes. "See you after school!" She waved as she followed the crowd out of the lunch room.

"Yeah, we better go now too. I have Mr. Kelly next, can't be late again." She said as she stood up, waiting for Chihiro.

"Study hall." Was her reply as she stood up. "I'm just going to head home since this is last period and I have nothing to do, I already finished all of my homework."

"Yeah, that's smart. I always do the same when I have study hall last period. Well, I'll see you around Chi!" She said walking away, her tight red curls bouncing with each step.

Chihiro smiled and waved before heading out of the cafeteria through the back doors which lead outside. She smiled as a gentle breeze blew through her hair as she stepped out of the building. She loved the smell of the crisp autumn air that reached her nose as she continued walking.

She only stopped for a moment once she reached the edge of the courtyard. She knew that she was allowed to leave the building since she had study hall, but she felt like she needed to stay. She shrugged off the feeling and continued on her way to her house, which was quite a ways away considering it was mostly a walk which headed uphill until you reached the top point of her street.

She walked slowly up one of the two large hills she had to climb, her backpack slung over her shoulder with her books in it. She let out a sigh of relief as she reached the top of that hill, and then looked to her left.

A long road that lead past a few small shrines near the base of a large tree before it turned into a dirt path that headed uphill.

She cringed and quickly looked away. Why had she looked in the first place? She sighed as she headed down the road to the shrines.

Whenever she looked down the road she had a strange feeling that she was being pulled down it, down the long street and onto the dirt path.

She continued to walk and scowled as she looked down at her feet, hearing the sound of the dress shoes hitting the concrete at each step. She paused and took her backpack off of her shoulder, slipping off her dress shoes and putting them into the bag. She then rummaged through the contents of the bag and smiled as she grabbed onto a pair of sneakers. She took them out of her backpack and slipped them onto her feet, and then tying them.

She smiled again and put the bag back on her back before quickly running down the street. The soft padding sounds of sneakers hitting concrete hit her ears, but then it stopped as she paused in front of the small shrines.

She smiled down at them and then continued down the street, stopping once she reached the end of the concrete road. She looked down at her feet and then down at the road which quickly turned into a dirt path. She took a step back.

"I can't go any further or I won't be able to stop myself from continuing." She said as she took another step backwards.

She turned around and walked down the street that she had already travelled many times before. She wished that she could go down the street, wished that she could see all of the people there again, but couldn't.

Those weren't the only reasons either. She didn't want to face Haku ever again. He had lied to her seven years ago. He had lied about returning to see her again.

_"There's no water here. I can walk across now."_

_"But I can't go any farther. Just go back the way you came; you'll be fine. But you have to promise not to look back; not until you've passed through the tunnel."_

_"But what about you? What will you do?"_

_"Don't worry, I'll go back and have a talk with Yubaba. I'll tell her I'm going to quit being her apprentice. I'm fine; I've got my name back."_

_"Will we meet again sometime?"_

_"I'm sure we will."_

_"Promise?"_

_"Promise. Now go and don't look back."_

A lie. She had never met him again, and probably never would. He probably was still Yubaba's apprentice. After all, he said he was going to tell her that he was going to quit. Not that he would right at that time. He might mean that he would quit in 20 years, or when he dies or something.

She sighed and continued down the road, heading back towards her house. For the first few months after she left the realm of the spirits she had cried. Every night she use to cry, but now she had stopped. What was the use of crying over something that was in that past, that she would never see again?

Life was like that sometimes. You would care about something so much one day, and never want to have to leave it. But then it gets taken away from you forever. If you decide not to dwell in the past, then the tears stop and the memory only lives, but the need for it dies off.

She walked up the hill to her house. The house many years ago that she moved into after her and her family were pronounced missing and most likely dead.

They were missing for two years. Only Chihiro knew the truth behind why they were missing and she never told anyone, who would believe her anyways? Its seems pretty impossible to most people that there would be a spirit world that was in their town the whole time that they had never even seen before.

By the time her thoughts had drifted away she was already at the front door of her house, and it was 4:42pm, or it at least said that on the sundial in the front yard.

Another day had passed by in the life of a 17 year old Chihiro. Another day had slipped away with her memories and part of her life, which only the memories would return.

Ending Note: That's all for now. I know it was boring, but I promise that it will get better. I have a couple ideas already in my head (and some on paper) which I need to figure out how to put into my story. No flames please ^^;; This is my first fanfic I ever wrote and I know it's not all that great. Constructive criticism would be nice though! Well, I hoped you enjoyed the first instalment of "Promise?". Ill post another chapter later on! Review please! 


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